The Director is Always Right
by Sophie Shikari
Summary: A naked encounter, a housing faux-pas, and a disastrous dinner - things couldn't be more awkward between Sheldon Cooper and the building's newest tenant Mimi Shawcross! What will happen when these two polar opposites are forced to spend more time together than they bargained for? SheldonXOC, Set around Season 2 of BBT.
1. Unidentified Female Object

"OK, 4B…" Mimi Shawcross checked the ad on the crumpled piece of paper she repeatedly shoved in and out of her jeans pocket on the way up the stairs, begrudging the 'out of order' sign on the door of every lift door she passed on the way up. She reached the fourth floor when the door at the foot of the stairs opened up.

"Oh, excuse me?" She spoke, and a tall slim shadow formed out on the hallway. "I'm here about the roommate ad in the paper?"

The shadow moved, and from the open doorway emerged a tall, slim man to match the silhouette, a puzzled look on his face.

"I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with a 'roommate ad'." His tone was quite blunt, and the look he gave to Mimi emitted a sense of vagueness with a subtle hint of superiority.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is this not 4B?" Mimi stammered a little as she uncrumpled the piece of paperer the 134th time that day.

The man looked up at the door number, "I sincerely hope not."

Mimi's eyes followed where the man's went, and widened when she realised she was stood outside 4A, "Oh, I'm sorry! Um…" She failed to think of a way to end her embarrassment, and simply bowed her head and scuttled across the hall to the door that obviously noted 4B. She knocked a couple of quiet-ish knocks, not wanting to come across as being a noisy person, but loud enough to hear on the other side. "Right Meems, don't blow this." She adjusted the strap of her holdall bag on her shoulder as she tucked her auburn hair behind her ears with the other hand.

The apartment door swung open, and there stood a preppy-looking blonde girl with a tired expression and a bed-head to match.

"Oh, is this a bad time?" Mimi's face filled with nerves, the tired expression on the blonde's made her feel this was a bad idea. "Um, I'm here about the ad in the paper?"

The blonde's expression changed to confusion, "Ad?"

"Yeah, the ad for a roommate, female wanted, must be good at sewing…". Mimi scrunched her face as she tried reading the rest of the small print.

"Um, I'm not looking for a roommate…"

"Oh, I have the right apartment, am I too late?" Mimi's heart sank. She needed to find a place to live soon.

"I never put an ad out." The blonde politely stated, "Um, are you okay? You look like you're about to cry."

Mimi lowered her head, "No I'm fine, I must have the wrong address. I'm sorry to have bothered you." She began to turn away from the lost opportunity before she was called back.

"Hey, um, why don't you come in and have a drink? You look tired."

Mimi smiled with delight, "Oh, that's so nice, thank you." She outstretched her hand. "I'm Mimi."

"Hi, I'm Penny." The blonde smiled back as she opened the door fully and gestured to the couch that was positioned in the middle of the spacious apartment lounge. "Excuse the mess, things got pretty wild here last night."

Mimi looked at the pizza boxes and empty beer bottles on the coffee table in front of the sofa she just sat on, but it was better than trawling across the state of California with the heaviest bag in history. Penny sat down next to her, looking at the holdall Mimi was carrying; it looked like it was going to burst at the seams, and covered with dirt.

"I don't suppose you have any idea where I can find a local hotel that's reasonably priced, do you?" Mimi allowed the filthy bag strap to slide off her aching arm onto the floor.

"Erm, I'm not too sure." Penny started to make a clicking sound in her mouth and looked like she was thinking hard. "Do you need a place to stay? Where are you from?"

"I'm from Boston. I'm looking to make it big in Hollywood as a director."

"Hey, me too!" Penny exclaimed, "Well, I'm an actress, but we've kinda followed the same path!" She looked over at Mimi who still had the out-of-date ad in her hand. Her auburn hair fell over her face as she hunched over. Her body appeared weary and defeated; Penny felt a little sorry for her. "So, you need a place to stay tonight? You can sleep here for the night if you want, recharge your batteries?"

Mimi's eyes lit up as she looked up at Penny, "Really? I don't wanna imp-"

"Don't worry about it!" Penny smiled, "It'll be a nice change from my usual company." She stood up from the couch, carefully stepping over the dirty bag. Feel free to use the shower, want me to take your clothes down to the laundry room? Save you walking back down and back up?"

"Oh Penny, you're so kind! The first bit of hospitality I've had since I've been here - well, apart from that kind man in Nevada who offered me $20 if I licked his lollipop…but thinking about it he didn't have any sweets on him."

A bewildered look graced Penny's face, boy that was such a naive story. This girl was a bit weird, what did she get herself into?

"Well, there's no men with lollipop's here." Penny laughed nervously before clearing her throat. "Um, the bathroom's just through there, I'll take your stuff down to the laundry room."

"Thanks." Mimi smiled as she opened the zip of her bulging bag to find some clothes to wear.

* * *

"Hey Penny."

"Hey, Leonard."

Penny was putting the last of Mimi's clothes in the washer as the spectacled man entered with his own load of clothes. He carefully noted the camouflage-print cargo pants in Penny's hand.

"New pants?"

"Oh, God no, ugh, I'd never wear camo." Penny dumped them in the washer as quick as she could. "No these are Mimi's."

"Who's Mimi?" Leonard asked, as he unloaded his own clothes into the washer next to Penny, hiding the Superman briefs underneath a t-shirt.

"Oh, she turned up at my door thinking I was looking for a roommate who could sew…" Penny closed the washer lid. "She looked kinda sad so I said I'd let her stay the night."

"Oh, well that's pretty kind of you." Leonard finished putting his washing in and turned to the blonde. "Who are you and what have you down with Penny?"

Penny scoffed playfully, "Hey! Well she said she was an aspiring director so she reminded me of when I moved here and how nice you and Sheldon were to me when I moved in so I thought I'd follow suit."

* * *

Mimi turned the water off in the shower before stepping out. She couldn't remember where Penny said she kept the towels. Panic struck inside Mimi's mind as she tried to think if she actually was informed on the location of the towels. But should she search? Where would someone keep towels in an apartment bathroom? How could she search without looking like a weird stalker?

While she was trapped in her own thoughts about towels, she didn't hear someone was at the door.

* * *

"Penny, Penny, Penny." Sheldon Cooper was knocking on his friend Penny's door. There was no answer, but he heard life on the other side. Penny was normally okay with him entering without her opening the door for him, and this was an emergency after all, so he let himself in.

There was no sign of her in the lounge, but there were sounds coming from the bedroom. For some very un-Sheldon-like reason, he entered the bedroom, but the door was open ajar.

"Penny, I need you to take me to the comic book store-" He stopped mid-sentence as his gaze met the red-head who was walking around the bedroom naked. "You're not Penny."

Mimi's eyes widened as she heard the blunt, familiar voice coming from behind her. "Oh, Good Lord." She whispered to herself, too shocked to turn around. What was she to do? She was naked in someone's apartment, and a man had just walked in. Was this man Penny's boyfriend?

"Where's Penny?" Sheldon asked the stranger, not really phased by the fact that she was naked - well, he could only see her from behind and the waist-below was hidden behind the bed as she was scrunched over. "Maybe she's deaf." Sheldon said to himself, thinking of logical explanations as to why the girl didn't respond to his question.

Mimi slowly turned around to face the man, only to find the guy from earlier that day, who she mistook as the roommate requester. Her hair managed to fall over her breasts, concealing her areolas from him.

"If I wasn't awkward already, this tips the scale."


	2. The One Bed Problem

"Penny, there is a strange, unclothed lady in your apartment." Sheldon approached the blonde who was walking up the stairs with his roommate, both carrying their loads of laundry.

"Oh, yeah that's Mimi. She's staying the night in my apartment." Penny stated, missing the part where Sheldon mentioned she was walking around naked, until it clicked in her brain. "Oh my God, I forgot to tell her where the towels were!" Penny paced quickly into her apartment, dropping the laundry basket at the door before picking up a clean towel from her own bundle of washing she failed to put away. "Mimi? I'm so sorry, here's a towel!" She threw the towel into the bedroom for the red-head to find, who was hiding like a startled puppy to conceal what modesty she had left.

"Thanks Penny." Mimi quickly wrapped herself in the pink towel, "Look, maybe staying here was a bad idea, I'll give you some money for your troubles, but I'll go and find a hotel to stay in."

Penny frowned, "Oh, don't be silly, it's 4 o'clock, all the good hotels will be full. Look we'll go over to the guys' place and you can meet them with your clothes on!" Her attempt at humour only made Mimi feel more embarrassed about the situation. "We're getting Thai Food, if you're up for it?"

"Great, I'd love to!" Mimi exclaimed, a grin on her face as huge as a Cheshire Cat's. Her stomach grumbled with delight at the thought of hot food, which she didn't have before beginning this State-wide journey.

"OK, great!" Penny smiled crookedly, this girl was a bit odd. It was definitely the last time she let a stranger in her home.

* * *

"Don't sit there!" Leonard warned the red-head who was so close to perching in Sheldon's coveted spot on the couch in the guys' apartment.

"Why not?" Mimi asked honestly.

"It's a long answer: are you prepared or do you want to retract that question before Sheldon sees you almost defiling his spot on the couch?"

Mimi didn't respond to Leonard and instead took to the chair next to the spot in question. She began to feel the awkwardness she normally experienced set in as Leonard and Penny began a conversation that she didn't fit in with - not in her mind anyway.

"So where are you from, Mimi?" Leonard asked her after a while, sounding genuinely interested in finding out the answer.

"I'm from Boston." She smiled, "I've been offered an internship in Hollywood to work with a Director's Assistant so I took the first plane I could to get here, but it was cheaper to get one to Utah so I coached it from there, but it broke down in Nevada so I've been walking for a week to get here." A nervous laugh escaped Mimi's lips as the look on Penny and Leonard's faces worried her a little.

"When do you start in Hollywood?" Leonard asked, trying to keep up with the story.

"The thirteenth."

Leonard's expression turned sympathetic, "Um, today's the fifteenth."

Mimi's face saddened when she realised her opportunity was missed. "Oh, God what am I gonna do?" She flung her arms into the air before holding her head in her hands dramatically.

"You could do a Penny and get a job at The Cheesecake Factory?" Leonard suggested, causing an insulted Penny to glare at the spectacled man.

"And what's wrong with The Cheesecake Factory?" Sass filled the tone of her voice as she put down her plate of food.

"Penny, he was merely stating the truth in the matter." Sheldon approached the seating area and took his rightful place, "You've been here for a long time, and we haven't had to endure seeing you on television yet."

Penny sighed, "Yeah, thanks for that, Captain Obvious."

"You're welcome." Sheldon replied bluntly, before looking to Leonard, "That was sarcasm, right?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Oh good. I am getting good at this." Sheldon smiled to himself as he tucked in to his food.

Mimi felt her face flush as she remembered the moment in her mind of what happened 90 minutes earlier.

"Um, I'd like to apologise for earlier." Mimi began, getting Sheldon's attention, though he seemed to look rather disinterested. "Can we start over?"

"The only way to 'start over' would be to invent a time machine and go back to the time you want to start over. Since no one here has yet accomplished such a task I fail to see how we can. But if you merely want me to vision you clothed well you have nothing to worry about."

Mimi was quite perplexed by Sheldon's answer, and looked over at Leonard for a bit of reassurance as she couldn't work out if he was being mean or not.

"Don't worry, it's not bothered him." Leonard smiled at the red-head who wished the chair she was sat on would just swallow her up.

"So Mimi," Penny began, picking up her beer bottle off the table, "Where did you find the roommate ad?" She made air quotes with her index and middle fingers for effect.

Mimi had totally forgotten about that awful misunderstanding, "Oh, it was in a newspaper at the back of a bus shelter." She answered, "There was a funny story about a cat who pretended to be a dog on the other page." She giggled to herself as her thoughts went back to the time she was under the bench reading the article, trying to keep out of the way of the passers-by and the shelter janitors who would shoo her with their sweeping brushes.

"Oh I remember that story!" Leonard stated, "God, that was a long time ago. Maybe the ad was by Louie."

"Was he the transvestite?" Penny asked, to which Leonard nodded.

"That might explain the sewing part of the ad." Mimi laughed nervously, trying to add to the ambience of the conversation. It must have worked, as Penny and Leonard laughed a little.

"I think that was in case he needed a bit of help with the dresses for Louise." Leonard chuckled, leaning back on the couch.

Mimi looked over at Sheldon who seemed to look really uncomfortable; he was sat quite firmly and avoiding Mimi's gaze. She didn't realise that she was studying the man, who had what she deducted to be a 'comfortable dress sense', and he surely noticed her gaze to which he responded with tightening his posture and turning his head away. Mimi shamefully turned her gaze towards the rest of the room, wishing the night away as each second passed.

* * *

The night was nearly over, the Thai food went down a treat and there were many laughs to be enjoyed. Mimi started to feel comfortable around the company she was in. She got to know Penny and Leonard quite well, but she was still astounded by the phenomenon that was Sheldon Cooper, who didn't talk that much to her, and responded in a very matter-of-fact way to everything she had said to him in attempts to start a friendly-enough conversation.

"Mimi, should we get going?" Penny asked the red-head with a bit of a slur, she had knocked down two large glasses of wine and three beers in just that last hour.

"Um, yeah okay." A sober Mimi replied, rising from the chair she had warmed to that evening. She turned to Leonard, "Thank you for being so welcoming." She outstretched her hand for him to shake.

"Yeah, no problem." Leonard returned the gesture, "You're always welcome over."

"Thanks." Mimi smiled, and then turned to Sheldon, arm still outstretched, "Thank you for being so welcoming."

Sheldon looked at her hand with fascination, "Do you sanitise regularly?"

Mimi's face flushed, "Yes?" She replied, unable to believe her hygiene was being questioned. Well, to be fair, she did mention the fact that she had been trawling the states for a week so she eventually understood his concern.

Sheldon studied her hand once more until he warily shook it. "You're welcome." He replied to her, not budging from his spot.

Mimi smiled nervously before making her way to the front door.

"Bye guys!" Penny slurred before grabbing a firm hold of Mimi's wrist and guiding her to the hallway.

Leonard closed the door to his apartment and turned to Sheldon, "Well, she seemed nice."

Sheldon's gaze made its way to Leonard, "She was, wasn't she?" He suddenly got uncomfortable again, as he felt for most of the evening, despite being in his usual spot on the couch, having the usual Thai order from the usual place (And there was nothing untoward about the meal that night), and the game of Scrabble they played was won by himself. "Leonard, I'm troubled."

Leonard's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Uh, huh." Sheldon rose from his seat. "I don't know what's troubling me though, Leonard. A normal body temperature appears to be established, my food was delicious, as always, I just quite can't put my finger on it."

"I'm sure it will come to you." Leonard began clearing some of the mess from the table, passing his roommate who sat back down on the couch. "I'm going to bed."

Sheldon appeared to not have acknowledged that his roommate had made his way to the small hallway that led to his room as continued to talk to him, "It's not my bowel movements, they're regular as usual- Leonard, have you changed your shampoo? It might be the scent cvmolecules that are sending my mind a-funny." He waited for a response from Leonard, and when none was received he realised he was the only one in the room.

"Oh well that's just rude." He sighed before rising once more from his cherished spot on the couch and making his way to his room.

* * *

Penny and Mimi were sat on the couch in Penny's apartment; Penny had a glass of wine in her hand that was nearly empty, the contents being swished around carelessly.

"So, I'll grab a few blankets and you can sleep on the couch, is that okay?" Penny readjusted her position on the couch to stand up easier in her tipsy state.

"Oh, thank you Penny." Mimi smiled like a child, though she didn't have alcohol to blame for her state. She was quite excited about having somewhere warm to sleep. "Don't worry, in the morning, I'll be gone."

Penny looked around desperately, "Well, if I had the space I'd let you stay here."

Mimi looked around, a little confused by the statement, "Well the transvestite must have thought there was room?"

Penny stumbled, "It's a small apartment, really. With just one bedroom And I like to have my own space…". She flinched as she waited for a bad reaction from her guest.

"Oh, no I understand, I'll find somewhere to live. My dad can send me another couple of thousand to keep me going."

Penny shook her head in disbelief, "You have access to money like that?" Mimi nodded, to which Penny responded, "Why did you walk for a week then? Couldn't you have just asked for flight money?"

Mimi shook her head, "I didn't want my dad to panic- plus it's a bit embarrassing admitting when you leave the nest for the first time that you don't make it to the destination because you spent the difference in flight money on Pokémon Cards."

Something in Penny's mind clicked. "Well how much are you willing to pay in rent?"

"Oh, I'd pay anything." Mimi laughed, "As long as the place was cosy and friendly."

"Well, I don't mind you staying here temporarily, until you find something more secure."

Mimi's eyes widened with delight, and a squeal of the same manner escaped her rosy lips. "Really? That's so great, thank you!" Mimi reached for her bag that was sat underneath the coffee table, "I can pay you $400 a week, I know that's the going rate around these parts." Uncertainty filled her voice as Penny's brow lifted. $400 a week? To share a one bed apartment? Was this girl totally clueless?

Penny knew there was limited space in the apartment, but she was being offered a lot of money for the space that would help her out for a while. A couple of weeks with the red-head wouldn't hurt.

"That's fine, roomie!" She emphasised the word as she playfully elbowed the red-head.


End file.
